How does more goes at IVF improve your chances

[collo04]

Hi everyone.
Just went to my gp and of course discussed the unexplained infertility thing again and he said that 2 goes at ivf werent enough but if we keep cycling it will improve our chances. Obviuously by doing ivf we have a certain chance of a pregnancy occurring but how can repaeated attempts improve our chances ?I accepted this without asking questions but can anyone tell how this theory works? Im confused.

[sushee]

This may sound cheesy collo but the way my FS explained it to me was it was like throwing dice and waiting for a 6 to come up. It probably won't happen first time or even the fifth, or even ever, but the chances are it probably will come up eventually. Just on a side note, he actually made me throw the dang dice and it took me 14 attempts to get a 6. Should have taken that as an omen.

Also your medical team learns about how you respond at each cycle and can suggest new ways to approach it. In my case, I had 1 cancelled cycle, 4 transfers with day 2 embryos, 1 transfer with day 3 embryos and assisted hatching and then a blast transfer, which was my successful cycle. Each cycle helps them help you better, and hopefully increase your chances of falling pg.

[collo04]

Thanks sushee for explaining that to me. I guess its just a guessing game and hopefully we will roll that dice sometime in the near future before my eggs are all dried up. hehehehe.

Can I ask for a blast transfer or is it up to the docs???

[sushee]

Yes you can absolutely ask for a blast transfer. You may find your Dr may give you reasons why he wouldn't recommend it, or he may think it's a great idea. But you can ask for sure.

[blackduckies]

Hi, can I jump in here. We are looking at IVF next cycle and was wondering about the blast transfer myself, have been trying to read up as much as possible and was a bit scared off when I read that sometimes it is better to transfer earlier, because they might have a better chance of success. How do you know when to go for it? And which way to go? I am 40 and time is running out quickly and I am just so unsure about what to do. Any advice would be appreciated, sorry Coll04 did'nt want to hi-jack your question.

[sushee]

Pam,

There is a thread on the pros and cons of Blast Vs Day 2 transfer. I did do a lot of Day 2 transfers as I didn't get a lot of embryos at each cycle (around 6 on average) but after so many cycles, I wanted to know if they were making it past that magic Day 3 stage, so moved on to a blast transfer. If you do end up managing to get a blastocyst to transfer, your chances of success actually increase, not decrease. But getting to transfer is sometimes the difficult part as you risk your embryos not making it to Day 5.

Anyway have a read of that thread I've linked you to, it may answer some of your questions.

[butterfly_warrior]

I should probably post this in the other thread... but there's a 20% chance each cycle for a woman under 35 with a day 2-3 transfer. There's a 42% chance each cycle for a woman under 35 with a blastocyst transfer.

My clinic goes to blastocyst as standard procedure, as long as there are three or more embryos at day 3. But to give you some idea of how much drop off there is - I had 26 eggs collected, 21 were mature enough to use and 15 fertilised. We had 12 good embryos at day 3, but only 4 made it to blastocyst and were frozen. Due to bad OHSS I couldn't transfer then.

As for more goes at IVF increasing your chances - I could get into a mathematical discussion of the probabilities, but I won't. Using Sushee's example of rolling the dice - the more times you roll, the more chance there is of getting the 6. Not that the chance of getting a 6 is any different each time you roll, but if you stop rolling the dice it's not going to happen. I'll stop babbling about maths now.

BW

[collo04]

Thanks guys all the things I know about IVF come from people on this site. My clinic isnt very forthcoming with information. Maybe when I see Dr sacks in two weeks he will ansewer all those dumb questions I have. Thanks again

[blackduckies]

Hi, thanks for the info. Part way through reading Blast versus 2 day transfer, still not sure where to go, I guess mostly it's going to depend on how well I do. Thanks again. Pam.